Seymour Simon's Blog, page 19

Science News: GPS Shoes

Have you ever seen the movie The Wizard of Oz? All through that story, Dorothy wishes to go home, until she finally realizes that she can get there by clicking her heels together three times while repeating "There’s no place like home." Inspired by the idea of clicking your heels together to find your way home, a British designer named Dominic Wilcox has created a pair of GPS shoes. That’s right. These shoes have an antenna that pokes out like a tag in the back, and when you click your heels together, it activates the GPS. Look at this photograph: The left shoe tip has a circle of lights. The light in the middle lights up to show you that the GPS is on. And whichever one of the lights that is on in the surrounding circle points the direction that you should be going. The right shoe’s line of lights tells the wearer how far he or she has to go. The circles light up from front to back as you get closer to your destination. For now, this is only an experiment. But it is not hard to imagine a day not too far in the future when things that we wear, from shoes to watch bands, carry devices that keep us plugged in to data like GPS, weather information, shopping information, or even our cell phones! Photo: Dominic Wilcox

The Great Squirrel Robbery: Part 4

I have been struggling all week with how to keep squirrels from breaking into my "squirrel proof" bird feeder and eating all the food. I tried strong packing tape to keep the top on, and then I tried locking the top down with bungee cords. The squirrels quickly and easily broke through both. OK, let me think about this. Squirrels have sharp teeth and they were easily able to bite through the packing tape and the bungee cords. But squirrels can’t bite through steel and they can’t bite through the bars of thefeeding cage. What do I have that is steel and that is easy toput on and take off? Of course, I thought. Paper Clips!Big ones! Don’t try to hold the top down, just use the clips to prevent the squirrels from picking up the top. I put clips on both sides of the top and sure enough, they prevent the squirrels from being able to lift up the top. At least it’s worked so far. The squirrelshaven’t gone in to get the seed from the feeder. But I’m not entirely convincedyet. There maybe a squirrel Einstein that’s working to solve the problem of moving paper clips, and it won’t entirely surprise me to find out that the clips are gone one day soon! Thank you for your ideas, helping me to try to solve the Great Squirrel Robbery!

The Great Squirrel Robbery: Part 3

The battle continues, as I try to keep squirrels from eating all the seed in my "squirrel proof" bird feeder. The cage-like shape is supposed to keep the squirrels out, while the birds fly right through the bars and eat. But, the squirrels lift up the top and eat all the food. Yesterday I tried locking it down with strong packing tape, but that was no good. What should be next?An idea bounced into my head. Bungee cords! That would do it. Bungee cords are super strong and they have hooks at each end. They’ll hook right into the wires of the cage. Why didn’t I think of that first? No problem! In a few minutes when I came back to look, the bungeecords were gone. Where could they be?I could barely pull them up. Surely the squirrels are not strong enough to pull up a bungee cord! Well, they aren’t strong enough, but their teeth are certainly sharp enough! They had bitten rightthrough the bungee cords and the cords lay on the ground beneath the feeder. And there was my friend the squirrel, having a little snack. Anyone have a better idea?

Writing Wednesday: The Great Squirrel Robbery

Seymour Simon has been writing this week about his battle to keep the squirrels from breaking into his "squirrel proof" bird feeder and eating all the seed that is meant for the birds. It is especially annoying because it is winter, and he knows that his feathered friends appreciate the food he puts out for them. Despite the special "cage" that is around his bird feeder, the squirrels still find a way to break in and eat the food. Now, we all know that squirrels can’t read, but if they could, maybe a stern, strong warning would keep them from touching the birds’ winter food.Your assignment: Imagine that it is your job to create a sign that warns squirrels about the consequences if they steal from the bird feeder. Your writing needs to be short and punchy - 50 words or less - so that it will fit on the sign with nice, big letters and be easy to read. When you have finished your "Squirrel Warning" sign, click on the yellow "Comments" link at the bottom of this blog post to show us your writing. Use strong, action verbs and powerful adjectives to tell squirrels why stealing the birds’ food is simply NOT OK. Have fun!Bird Identification: Red-Breasted Nuthatch

The Great Squirrel Robbery: Part 2

If youread my blogearlier today, you know that I am in a battle with the squirrels who are breaking into my "squirrel proof" bird feeder and eating all the food. So, the squirrels arewinning…at least for now. Ihave to find a way to lock the top of the bird feeder so that the squirrels can’t simply liftup the top and reach in to get the nuts and other things they like. Looking at the feeder, it though it would be easy. All I have to do is to use some tapeto close the top. Strong tape, packing box tape is just the thing, I thought.I tapedseveral pieces and criss-crossed them over the top of the feeder. Well, that settles that, I said to myself. That’ll show those squirrels who’s in charge here. In a few minutes when I came back to look, I found out who was in charge. The squirrels, of course! They hadeasily chewed through the tape, lifted the top and were happily enjoying the seed. Round two for the squirrels! Now what?

The Great Squirrel Robbery

Feeding birds at a bird feeder is not new, but for me, setting up my own feeder hasbeen an eye opener. I used to watch the birds at a feeder and think to myself, that’s interesting but all those birdslook alike. Or at least they look like two kinds: big birds and little birds.All that changed when I set up my own feedernear my country houseand started to use good binoculars to look at the birds. Suddenly I saw that there were allkinds of birds at thefeeder, some with crested heads,some with black streaks on their heads, some had dabs of color here and there, femaleslookeddifferent than males, and so on and so on. Ibegan to use a bird identification book constantly. In the first few days I had logged over a dozen different kinds of birds using the feeder. What fun, I thought. Now I have to set up a feeder just outside my kitchen window in my downstate home in Great Neck, on Long Island. One of the problems with bird feeders is that squirrels like bird feeders, too. And on Long Island there are plenty of squirrels and most of them seem to hang out around mykitchen window.Squirrels eat all the food, and keep the birds away from the feeder. I knowwhat I’m going to do, I thought.I’ll get a squirrel-proof feeder, the one that has acage outside the feeder, completely enclosing the feeder inside. It looks sort of like a bird cage withthefeeder inside. The squirrels will never break into that, I thought. Well, it took only a couple of hours for the squirrels to figure out that the "squirrel-proof" cage was "really-not-squirrel-proof at all!"All the squirrels had to do was lift up the top of the feeder (the part that I lifted to put the seeds inside), reach in and grab all the seeds they wanted. What should I do? I am determined to match wits with my squirrels! After all, I am awriter, anauthor, a teacher.How can a squirrelmatch witswith me? Easily, it turned out! I wasn’t nearly as smart as I thought! OR, the squirrels were a lot smarter than I had realized. OR maybe both! Anyone have a suggestion about what I should try next?Bird Identification:Top Left: White-Breasted NuthatchBottom Right: Black-Capped Chickadee (have you ever heard their call? It sounds like: "chick-a-DEE-dee-dee")

Hagan�s Book Review of EXTREME OCEANS

I’m so excited about my new bookSEYMOUR SIMON’S EXTREME OCEANS, which is being published in April. I loved writing this book because although the oceans are the largest space in the universe which is known to be inhabited by living things, they are still largely unexplored. There are fascinating things being discovered all the time below the ocean’s surface!One of the nice things about being the author is that you receive a box of your new books so that you can see it before it is out in the stores. I sent a copy to my friend Hagan, who is 7-years-old and in the second grade. Here is his "advance review" of EXTREME OCEANS!Dear Seymour, Your new book Extreme Oceans is awesome! When my Mom showed me the cover, I was so excited to read it because of the pictures, especially the shark, on the front. I couldn’t wait to see what was inside. I love the chapter, Deep, Dark, and Mysterious.I learned that at the bottom of the ocean when fish are red they look dark to their enemies and prey. This is better than being silvery colored, because red doesn’t reflect the light at all. I didn’t know at the bottom of ocean that the water pressure could blow up an animal if you brought it really quick to the surface. That is crazy! I am going with my Mom and Dad to Alaska for spring break. I would love to see a whale. They are huge! In your book, I learned about a fish even bigger than a whale. It is called a whale shark and can grow up to be over 50 feet long and weigh 80,000 pounds. I always thought sharks killed everything in the ocean, but the whale sharks only eat small sea animals from the water it takes into its big mouth. They sound cool and nice too. This was an awesome book! Thank you for giving it to me before anyone else. Love, Hagan

Cool Photo from Saturn

Today’s "Cool Photo of the Week" is a magnificent shot taken by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which has been sending us photographs from Saturn for almost nine years. This one is particularly beautiful because we can see Venus - a tiny, bright speck - shining in the distance. We often see Venus in the early morning here on Earth, shining like a bright "morning star." This is an entirely different view, since Venus is seen here from a distance of 884 million miles (1.42 billion kilometers) away from Saturn. If you want to try to imagine how far 884 million miles is, it is TEN TIMES the distance our planet Earth is from the sun. That’s quite a camera on the Cassini probe! The early Romans named the dazzling white planet Venus, after their goddess of love and beauty. Gazing at this lovely image, you can certainly see why. Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SSIYou can read more about both VENUS and SATURN in my newly updated eBooks, which are part of the StarWalk Kids streaming collection of digital books for schools and libraries. These "Read and Listen" books have top quality, professionally-recorded narration and come with "Teaching Links" to support Common Core use in the classroom. Educators:Click hereto sign up for a free, 30-day trial for your school.

The Mysterious Visitor: Part 2

So I had a hitchhiker anemone in my saltwater aquarium. Using theSeeMore Explorers Observation Log, I finally figured out that the hitchhiker was named an Aiptasia anemone, also known as a Rock, Tube or Glass Rose Anemone. It’s called a pest not because it keeps asking questions you can’t answer (only kidding), but because it can multiply rapidly, grow quickly and more-or-less take over the aquarium from other invertebrates.The Aiptasia Anemone looks like a tiny palm tree, with a long, thin body and miniature, waving tentacles on top. Like many other anemones, Aiptasia uses its tentacles to sting enemies and food animals that come too close. The tentacles have stinging cells called nematocysts that can sting fish, crabs, shrimp, coral and anything else (like your fingers) that come too close. An Aiptasia also withdraws into a tiny hole in the rock if threatened. It’s hard to get rid of a colony of Aiptasia in an aquarium. If you try to rip it out, each tiny torn piece that you leave behind grows into a new animal. This results in more animals than you originally started with. BAD IDEA! So what do you do? In doing research to find the answer, I searched on the Internet using these terms: "control unwanted Aiptasia Aquarium." You could have used many similar words and come up with suggestions about what to do. And here’s one simple solution I discovered: Purchase a small, colorful animal called a peppermint shrimp. A peppermint shrimp in an aquarium is part of what’s called "the cleanup crew." It likes to eat leftover food that you feed to the fish. It also has an interesting taste for…guess what?? It eats Aiptasia anemones! And that’s exactly what I did. I purchased two peppermint shrimp and put them in my small reef aquarium. The next morning I looked in and the Aiptasia was gone. It worked exactly as I had read. The peppermint shrimp ate the Aiptasia and I have two new colorful members of the new cleanup crew, my new heroes, peppermint shrimp.

Mrs. Sposito’s Class is On the Case!

Yesterday, I posted a story called "Mysterious Visitor in my Aquarium," about finding an unexpected living thing in my aquarium. I wrote about how I figured out what it is, and said that in my next post, I will tell you all what I am going to do about it. Today, I heard from Mrs. Sposito’s class in Menands, New York. Her students are regular visitors here, and this is what they wrote: Hello Mr. Simon, How many tentacles did the pest anemone have? What color was the anemone? We took a class survey and predicted that you would take the pest anemone out of your tank. We can’t wait to hear what you decided to do with the pest.Your friends,Mrs. Sposito’s First Grade ClassMenands School Hmmmmm…..good questions. This is a picture of what it looked like. It is called an Aiptasia anemone, which probably came in as a "hitchhiker," on a rock or plant that I put in. It is a reddish brown color, but it is far in the back, behind some rocks, so I can’t say for sure how many tentacles it had. These creatures are not easy to remove. Stand by for the end of the story. I think you will be surprised to hear how I solved this problem! Photo: Debbie Hauter